The piano
by HermionenotHermoninny
Summary: Sirius moves into a new flat, where he discovers an old piano. Remus/Sirius, marauders era.


Author's note: This is the first time I've ever written fanfiction at all, so please let me know if it's total crap and I'll stop writing it :)

Disclaimer: Unfortunately, I don't own any of the characters.

"Home sweet home!" Sirius cried as he swung the door open and grinned at Remus, James, and Peter. It was the first day of Christmas holiday of their seventh year. One of Sirius's recently deceased relatives had left him a flat, where he would be living after he graduated from Hogwarts, so naturally, the four marauders had decided it would be the perfect place to stay over the holidays.

Sirius crossed the threshold excitedly. The living room was completely free of furniture, except for a sofa that had certainly seen better days. The others followed somewhat dubiously. Sirius plopped down on the sofa and patted the cushion next to him.

"Have a seat, lads!" he commanded, grinning from ear to ear. Remus suspected that his joy had a lot to do with finally having a place to call his own; since he had run away from home, Sirius had been staying with the Potters, and while he loved them exponentially more than his own parents, he sometimes felt that he didn't belong or that he was burdening them with his presence. James shared Remus's thoughts, and though it made him sad to think about no longer living with his best friend, he was just happy to see Sirius so overjoyed.

James sat down next to Sirius, and Remus next to James. Peter looked uncomfortable for a moment, until Sirius jumped up to offer him his seat. Sirius wandered about the living room, while his friends watched him from the sofa. He ran his hand along the peeling wallpaper, amazed that this was all his. Finally, he crossed the room and found a large, oddly-shaped, sheet-covered object sitting in the corner. As he jerked the sheet off, he was showered with dust and started coughing and sneezing uncontrollably. Remus jumped up and speed-walked over to him, trying to hide his concern.

When the dust had settled, James and Peter joined them to examine the object in the corner. This time, it was not Sirius, but Remus who grinned excitedly.

"It's a piano!" he exclaimed, lifting the keylid to reveal the carved ivory of the keys. And it was indeed a piano- a beautiful, wonderfully aged Steinway grand. James and Peter rolled their eyes; they did know what a piano was, after all, and Remus didn't have to be such a know-it-all. Everyone looked at Sirius, expecting one of the snarky comments for which he was famous, but he was busy stroking the keys with awe.

"Blimey," he breathed, "This used to be in my mother's house. I haven't played it in ages. Merlin knows how it ended up here. Maybe Uncle Alphie stole it."

"You played?" Remus asked, ignoring the rest of Sirius's statement. James and Peter mimicked his look of surprise.

"Yeah," Sirius answered, tearing his gaze from the instrument to look at his friends, "Dear old mum made Regulus and me take lessons, you know, so that we could seem even more rich and pretentious. Regulus didn't take to it very well, so she finally let him quit so we could be rid of the horrible sounds of him practicing. I wasn't half bad though." And with that, Sirius leaned over to play a C Major chord, testing out the old piano. All four boys leapt back that the unexpected dissonance that resulted.

"Urgh," Sirius said, wrinkling his nose, "Old thing must not've been tuned for years. You'd think wizards would have figured out a way from keeping them from going out of tune like that by now." Remus glanced at Sirius, then aimed his wand at the piano and muttered an incantation under his breath. Immediately, the sound of wires twisting into place could be heard.

"Ah, Remus, what would we do without you?" Sirius asked, making Remus blush.

"Do you remember anything?" Remus asked.

"Nah, none of the stuffy old classical stuff Mum made me learn," Sirius said, fidgeting, "Although…" He trailed off.

"What?!" asked Remus excitedly, his ears turning pink. Sirius adjusted the bench and sat down, his fingers hovering above the keys.

"Well, I learned some old muggle stuff just to piss my parents off. I think I may have retained some of that." Sirius stopped speaking, and suddenly, his fingers were dancing over the keys in a joyful ragtime. Peter squeaked with joy, and James chuckled and picked him up, spinning him around in a chaotic and goofy dance. Remus laughed at their display, but stayed close to the piano, watching Sirius's skilled fingers draw the melody out of the beautiful instrument.

After a few moments, Sirius glanced up, meeting Remus's gaze in what Remus deemed to be much too awkward and intimate eye contact. Suddenly uncomfortable, Remus joined Peter and James with an exaggerated enthusiasm. James wolf whistled as Remus did Charlestons across the floor. Sirius watched his friends and laughed, his fingers seeming to play of their own accord. When each song ended, Sirius picked right up with another, and the marauders danced and laughed until they were out of breath and Sirius had run out of material.

They made their way into the kitchen, James still chuckling, Remus red in the face (whether from embarrassment or exertion, no one could tell), Peter huffing and puffing, and Sirius sporting an even bigger grin than he had before. Once in the kitchen, the four realized that there was not a bit of food in the flat, and decided to walk to the muggle grocery store on the corner.

The marauders had arrived home with provisions with only minor complications: Sirius had made a fool of himself trying to pay with muggle money and had made Peter do it, and after a brief argument, and James had convinced Remus to conjure him a fake ID, although he had at least had the decency to not let Remus see what he was buying with it.

Once they had arrived back at the flat, the marauders had congregated once again on the sofa, eating, talking, and laughing. After dinner, James had insisted that they plot some pranks for the start of the new term, and Remus had plugged his ears and said "LALALALA" at the top of his lungs but had eventually succumbed and joined the plotting.

Around midnight, everyone had decided to turn in for the night. James and Sirius had unrolled their sleeping bags in the main bedroom, and Peter and Remus had done the same in the spare.

Remus awoke with a start and glanced at his watch; it was 3:00 AM. He buried his face in his pillow and tried to figure out what had awoken him. He could not recall a dream, so it couldn't have been that. Peter was snoring softly, but he was used to that by now, and it never woke him up. He strained his ears, making use of the wolfish senses with which he was so unfortunately endowed. He frowned. A faint piano melody floated into the room from the living room, but he had to be imagining it. Yes, that was it, he was dreaming of piano, because of all of the piano excitement earlier in the day. But, this melody was so different from those that Sirius had played while they had danced that afternoon. It was sad and heavy, as if the weight of the world rested in the spaces between the notes and each chord was a tired and regretful step toward a miserable end. And, Remus realized after listening for a moment, this melody was strangely familiar.

Remus disentangled himself from his sleeping bag, stood up, and stretched. He would at least go and check to be sure he was imagining the melancholy melody, he decided. As he left the room, he closed the door quietly behind him, taking care not to disturb Peter's snoring. He tiptoed down the hall, and the music got louder as he approached the living room. Perhaps he was not imagining it.

Remus stopped in the doorway to the living room. There Sirius sat, his fingers dancing once again over the piano keys, although his motions could not be more different from those of earlier that day. He gazed downward, or perhaps his eyes were closed- Remus couldn't tell- and his caressed the keys more than playing them. His left hand rose and fell dramatically, as he leaned into every heavy chord, making Sirius a visual representation of the belabored music. His right hand drifted about the keyboard, picking out each note with practiced accuracy. His beautiful raven colored hair fell haphazardly over his shoulders, and his breathing was relaxed and even; if Remus had not known better, he would have thought that Sirius was sleeping.

Remus sighed. Earlier that year, Remus had realized that the love he felt for Sirius was a bit different than that of just a friend, and he had been fighting it ever since. He knew Sirius would never reciprocate his feelings, and he valued his pride and his friendship with Sirius far too much to try anything stupid. But now, seeing him existing in such perfect unison with the music that flowed out of him? Well, that only made things exponentially worse for Remus. He loved music, and how could a music lover not fall for someone who was clearly just as in love with the music as he was?

Remus was pulled out of his thoughts as the music stopped well before the end of the piece. He started to panic, thinking that Sirius must have seen him. Luckily, Sirius seemed to just want a break; he stretched and looked around the room, although his gaze miraculously avoided Remus. Remus breathed a sigh of relief. Part of him wanted to run as quickly and quietly as he could back to his room, before Sirius saw him, but he wasn't a Gryffindor for nothing, and Gryffindors didn't slink back into their rooms and pretend they had not just heard and seen the most beautiful display in the world.

"Beethoven. Moonlight Sonata," Remus declared, breaking the silence. Sirius whipped his head around, his eyes locking with Remus's. Remus had thought their eye contact earlier that day was awkward and much too intimate, but that was nothing compared to this. Remus mustered all of the courage he possessed and started walking towards Sirius and the piano, careful not to shift his gaze.

"Yeah," said Sirius when Remus was standing right in front of him, "Only the first movement though. I still haven't learned the other two." Neither boy broke the eye contact.

"How did you know? Do you play?" Sirius asked, when Remus didn't speak again.

"Oh, no," Remus laughed, shaking his head and dispelling some of the intensity of the moment, "I love piano, always wanted to learn, but we could never afford a piano or a teacher, so…" he trailed off for a moment, then continued, "Anyway, Dad took me to see a famous muggle concert pianist for my tenth birthday. He played the Moonlight Sonata, and I thought it was the most wonderful thing I'd ever heard."

"I never knew that," Sirius said, cursing himself for how stupid he sounded. Remus just nodded.

"I thought you said you didn't remember any of that 'stuffy classical stuff,'" Remus said questioningly. Sirius smiled.

"I know, I know. I didn't want you three thinking I was some kind of pansy for liking that sort of music." Remus burst out laughing.

"I read poetry on a daily basis!" Remus exclaimed, "You thought I would think you're a pansy?!"

"Well, I was more worried about James and Peter, I suppose."

"You know, Beethoven was a muggle composer. I'm surprised your mother even let you learn any of his music," Remus said, changing the subject. Sirius smiled again.

"She didn't. I...Well, you know the Room of Requirement?" Sirius asked. Remus nodded. "Well, one day in fifth year, right after I started staying with the Potters, I was having sort of a rough day. And I went in there, and I guess the room knew what I needed even though I didn't, so there was just a huge grand piano sitting in the middle of the room and shelves and shelves of music surrounding it. Stuff by all of the old muggle composers: Bach, Beethoven, Chopin, Debussy, that kind of thing. I started going in there to learn new music and practice pretty much every night. And that's how I found Moonlight Sonata." Both boys were blushing by the end of Sirius's confession: Sirius because he did not like to admit to being sensitive and having feelings, and Remus because of the intimate detail of Sirius's life that he had just learned.

"Can you…" Remus started after a long pause, "I mean if you wanted to… Well… You could… Play something else?" Sirius nodded, placed his hands on the keyboard, and began a beautiful nocturne. Remus leaned over and watched Sirius's long fingers pull the melody from the piano in awe.

Finally, Sirius played the final chord and removed his hands from the keys and his foot from the pedal. He looked up at Remus with an odd expression that Remus had never before seen on his face. Remus, though, was still so enchanted by the music and how beautiful Sirius looked while playing it that his brain was no longer controlling his actions. He leaned down even further into Sirius's personal space, their faces inches apart. And then, without thinking at all, Remus closed the small distance between them and softly placed his lips on Sirius's.

Sirius inhaled sharply, obviously surprised. Finally, Remus's brain seemed to return, but before Remus could pull away and apologize profusely, Sirius was moving. He stood without breaking the kiss, and one of his arms snaked around Remus's back pulling their bodies so close that their chests touched. His other hand tangled itself in Remus's hair, making sure that Remus could not pull away as Sirius deepened the kiss.

Immediately, all thoughts of panic exited Remus's brain, and his arms moved of their own accord to rest around Sirius's neck. Remus sighed happily into the kiss, and Sirius took the opportunity to gently push his tongue into Remus's mouth. Remus moaned in surprise, and Sirius took that as a sign that he should continue. So continue he did. He explored Remus's mouth with his tongue, licking deliciously at the sensitive inside edges of Remus's lips. Remus moaned again and stepped closer to Sirius, making the entirety of their bodies flush against each other. This time, Sirius groaned. Taking the encouragement, Remus tangled his fingers in Sirius's hair and nibbled gently on his lip.

"Mmmm," said Sirius, sending chills through Remus's entire body. The kiss grew hungrier and less gentle, and when they finally pulled away, both boys were breathing heavily.

"We should go back to bed before the others wake up and wonder where we are," Remus said regretfully, although he wanted nothing more than to stand there, pressed between Sirius and the piano, and kiss Sirius for the rest of the night. Sirius nodded, moving away from Remus slightly.

"Merlin, Remus," he said, "If I'd known that would happen, I would have played piano for you years ago." And with that, he smiled, gave Remus a quick peck on the lips, and started quietly down the hall toward the bedroom.

"Years…?" Remus breathed, still in awe of everything that had just transpired. Finally, he found the strength to follow Sirius's path down the hall and open the door to the spare bedroom, where he found Peter snoring as if nothing had happened at all.


End file.
